at there exist between the orbits
of Jupiter and Mars, what are called planetoids, about 500 in number,
which are supposed to be the remnants of a broken or shattered world. As
may be expected from such an accumulation, they present the most
extraordinary diversities and eccentricities in the orbits that can
possibly be conceived. They are of all shapes and sizes, and besides
their orbits round the sun, have orbits among themselves. They are so
clustered together that their orbits intersect each other at numerous
points, and when in conjunction are said to suffer great perturbations,
being pulled great distances this way and that by each other's
attractive influence. It is further stated that their orbits so
intersect each other, that if they were imagined to be material rings,
they would be inseparable, and the whole could be suspended by taking
any one of them up at random. Here, then, is presented to us a kind or
order of celestial phenomena for whose well-being and effectual working
the Centripetal Force or the Attraction of Gravitation cannot possibly
account. In their case another force is demanded which shall be the
exact complement and counterpart of the Centripetal Force. There needs
therefore a force, not an imagined one, simply conceived to fill a want,
but a real Force, as real and as plainly to be understood as the
Centripetal Force. A force existing in each world just like the
Attraction of Gravitation, only the reverse of Gravitation, a repellent,
repulsive Force, acting in the reverse mode, and way, to universal
attraction. This Force must be governed by the same rules and laws that
govern the Centripetal Force, if it is to work in harmony with the same.
It must be universal in its character, having a proportion of forces
equal to the product of the masses of the two bodies which are
concerned, and its path must coincide with the path of gravitational
attraction, that is, in the straight line which joins the centres of
gravity of the two bodies. Further, and what is perhaps the most
important of all, it must act as a repelling or repulsive force which
shall be in the same proportion in regard to distance, as the law
governing Centripetal Force, that is, inversely as the square of the
distance.

Again, and briefly, there are also in existence small bodies called
meteors, which are said to exist by myriads, which float in space, and
circle round the sun. They are of all shapes and sizes, from one ounce
to